Top 10 of 2011

We are way behind on updating our friends and family on our 2011 (and we have not updated our blog in some time).  We thought a good idea for doing both would be to put together a list of the ten most exciting things that happened to us in 2011.  While there were clearly some exciting things that happened to our family during the year, many of the most exciting things happened "around us:"  Tyler's brother got married, Kelli's sister is moving to South Korea for a year, Tyler's dad was called to the stake presidency, Kelli's mom got a new job, and Tyler's sister was diagnosed with leukemia.  Nevertheless, some exciting things happened to us as well.  Here goes.  

1.  Lincoln's Birthday

In January, Lincoln turned into a 2-year-old!  I made his cake, which I blogged about on my craft blog.  He loved it.  It has been fun to watch him turn from baby to toddler to little boy.

2.  Great Blizzard of 2011

Also in January, we had a huge snowstorm.  The town was shut down for almost a week.  That's the way I prefer my snow - limited to one week of the year.   Lincoln did not like the snow, but we thought it was pretty fun.  

3.  Road Trip!

Tyler's brother Jake married Courtney Edwards in March.  To get the whole Williams clan out to Utah, we rented a 15-passenger van, piled in, and drove for 3 days.  The kids (1-year-old Emmett, 2-year-old Lincoln, 3-year-old Gwen, and 5-year-old James) were amazingly well-behaved. But I'd still prefer not to repeat that drive for a while.  Or ever.

4.  Tornadoes and Power Outage

On April 27, 137 tornadoes were reported in the South.  The whole of North Alabama lost power, and it took several days before we got it back in Huntsville.  It was surreal to be in the middle of so much devastation and really only be inconvenienced.  We felt so blessed to be spared the worst of it.  We did a lot of cooking on the grill, played a lot of board games, listened to the radio, and went to bed when the sun went down.  It was kind of nice to disconnect a little bit. 

5.  Cars 2

We took Lincoln to see his first movie in theaters this summer.  It turned out to be better on the small screen, but at least he liked running in the halls.

 

6.  Mason Arrives

On August 30, we welcomed Mason Bryce into our family.  He arrived 5 1/2 weeks early because I developed preeclampsia with this pregnancy as well.  He had to stay in the NICU for a while, but progressed quickly and was able to come home after only a week.

7.  Tate Farms Trip 

In October, we went up to Tate Farms to pick pumpkins and generally celebrate fall.  It was a fun day-trip with Tyler's sister Angela and our niece Gwen.

8.  Halloween

For Halloween, we dressed as Toy Story characters.  Lincoln was Buzz Lightyear, and we dressed Mason as one of the little green aliens.  Tyler had the clever idea for us to dress as Andy and Bonnie.  Lincoln loved trunk-or-treating, and caught on pretty quickly to the concept of walking around and demanding candy.

9.  Lincoln's Favorites

As Lincoln approached age 3, we started quizzing him on his favorite things.  We like the idea of memorializing the things he likes at this age and figure this is as good a place as any.  They are:

Drink - chocolate milk
Food - Eggos
Color - blue
Movie - The "monster truck movie"
Song - In the Leafy Treetops
Best Friend - "Baby Carson"

10.  90th Percentile

By his 4-month checkup at the end of the year, Mason was in the 90th percentile for both height and weight.  He got his dad's head, which is off the charts.  We may or may not refer to him, occasionally, as Gigantor.  He. Is.  Huge.

Here's to an exciting 2012.